How to study English through tv-series: 7 best ways and 5 best shows

15.10.2016

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How to study English through tv-series: 7 best ways and 5 best shows

Besides rainy weather the fall brings new seasons of the shows we all love. If you want to find out who will be eaten by zombies in the new season of «The Walking Dead» or where the Winchester brothers from «Supernatural» will go next, you can do it in a useful way for your English! Learn how from this article!
Earlier we posted a material about tv-shows. It contains arguments for watching tv-shows and not movies in order to improve your English. This article is about the actual ways to learn English through tv-series.
Why watching tv-shows is beneficial for your English
1. You have fun. Some people say that an ideal job is a hobby, something you love doing. The same goes for education. If the process is interesting, you want to return to it again and again. Surely, even studying grammar can be interesting, but it’s still studying. Your brain takes it as something that «has to be done». However, watching tv-shows is pure fun. Now imagine that you can learn English having fun! It’s like making your abs look nice without even getting out of bed.
2. You develop your listening comprehension skills. It’s simple: you can’t learn to understand other people’s speech without training. In the beginning having trouble with understanding actor’s words is perfectly normal. It takes time to get used to the accent (read more on the topic here). Besides, even the best voiceover can’t be as good as the original acting.
3.You learn only the necessary words. How to know whether you will need a word you saw in a textbook or not? Maybe it hasn’t been used for 20 years already. It’s quite hard to understand without somebody’s help. But when you hear a new word in an episode of «Sherlock», be sure — you’ll need it (read about the most used words here). More than that, you hear new words in context, so you already know how it can be used in a sentence.
Ways how to learn English through tv-series
1.Choose according to your interests. Choose a show that has characters you like. It should be like this: watch the same series in English as you normally watch in Russian. This way you’ll want to keep watching it to find out what’s next.
2.Watch a familiar show. It’s perfect if you have already seen this show in Russian. Then it’ll be easier to understand the characters because you know the context. For example, you remember what House talked about in one of the episodes. While watching the show in English you will be able to imagine what the phrases must sound like in English. You can check whether your guess was right or not.
3.Don’t be afraid of turning subs off. Using subs is controversial. Some people think they are useful, and some don’t. We think that if you understand enough to keep track of the story, don’t use subtitles. It’s important to pursue real goals: don’t expect to understand every single word. You don’t need that. What’s important is to understand the gist of the story. On the other hand, if you understand nothing at all, you can use subtitles, but not all the time unless you want to practice speed reading.
4.Write down new words. Use a notebook to write down new words. It’s better to write down the whole sentence so that you know how to use it.
5.Make up stories with new words. Our brains save only the necessary information. That’s why if you hear a word once, write it down and never use it again, it is a waste of time. In order not to let this happen, try to make a short story using new words. It doesn’t have to be realistic. In fact, the stranger the story is, the better you memorize the words.
6.Watch episodes again. After writing down and learning new words, watch the episode again. It’s better to take a break (3-5 days) to let the words sink in.
7. Repeat the phrases of your favorite characters. Intonation can’t be learned or taught. All these «uprising and descending» tones don’t mean much to a person without a degree in linguistics. However, the tone is exactly what makes you sound natural. Stop your player and repeat the phrases you hear trying to copy the actors’ tones. This will help you learn to express fear, surprise, sarcasm and other emotions just like native speakers do.
A list of best tv-series of recent times
Our previous article about tv-series already contains a list of the best shows. But it was designed for beginners. This time our list is for people with very good English knowledge.
1. House of Cards. A political drama with Kevin Spacey in the leading role of a congressman, who is ready to do anything to get what he wants. This show has a lot (!) of talking, so prepare to listen attentively. By the way, Spacey’s character is from a southern city in the US, so pay attention to his interesting accent.
2. Newsroom. If you want to know how the news is made for big channels, this show is for you. Interesting character chemistry, drama and humor — these are the ingredients of the show. All characters speak very clearly and very quickly.
3. The Affair. A married man, father of four children falls in love with a waitress from a provincial town. How many stories like this have we seen? However, this show is special is its storytelling manner (no spoilers here). The characters speak not as fast as they do in examples above, and most of the information can be understood from the context.
4. Fargo. Crazy coincidences, very weird characters, great visual style are the reasons, why so many people love this show. It is recommended only for the most advanced students because the language here is very difficult.
5. American crime story. In the spotlight is a homicide with O. J. Simpson, a famous football player, being the prime suspect. Learn what the best lawyers are capable of! By the way, one of the main characters is portrayed by David Schwimmer, the guy, who played Ross from «Friends». God, he looks old!
We hope our tips will help you make studying English an interesting process!

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